Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Today is Valentine's Day. Traditionally, this day of romance is celebrated with chocolate or flowers, lavish dinners out, or even more lavish dinners in. But what if you're still looking for that special someone, or you're miles away from the one you love? Google Desktop to the rescue: Here are a few desktop gadgets you can use to find or celebrate love.

Crush
By Lahiru Lakmal Priyadarshana
Let a special Google Talk friend know that you have a crush on him or her.

Cupid's GadgetBy Teodor Filimon
Are you too shy to ask someone out? Do you want to see if he or she likes you, too? Try "like-marking" with Cupid's Gadget!

Find My Heart
By Lahiru Lakmal Priyadarshana
Give your heart to a Google Talk friend. Your friend wins if it takes five tries or less to find where you hid the heart.

Kiss Me!
By Kathy Walrath
Decorate your desktop with a kissable, framed picture of your sweetheart — or anyone elre you'd like to kiss. Send your prospective valentine a picture of yourself and a pointer to this gadget, and you're sure to get a kiss! (Virtually, at least.)

Love is in the Air
By James Yum
Heart-shaped fireworks simulate the graffiti inspired by first love. What could be more romantic?

Flower Pot
By Google Inc.
If you're too late to order flowers for your honey, try giving virtual flowers instead. You might even try to convince your valentine that electronic flowers are ecologically superior to chemically treated flowers that have been transported hundreds of miles. Good luck with that.

You can find Valentine's Day gadgets and more at our holiday gadgets page. If you feel inspired to create your own holiday gadgets — pi Day, anyone? — visit our Developer Site and be sure to grab the Google Desktop SDK.

With the dramatically increasing amount of content out there, you need better ways to find relevant information, whether searching your computer or reading the latest headlines in sidebar. How could we improve the way you stay up-to-date with sidebar and gadgets? How could we make it even easier to search files and find that lost book report, web page, or recipe? After many months, we are pleased to release the Google Desktop 5 Beta application, featuring a new sidebar and redesigned Gadgets.

The sidebar has a completely new look and feel. It samples the color of your wallpaper and fades in the sampled color so that it fits seamlessly onto your desktop. Some of our gadgets have been redesigned so that they are easy to tell apart, easy to read, and easy on the eyes. More differentiated gadgets allow for faster scanning of information through the sidebar. And we've created a new dialog for adding gadgets so it's easier and faster than ever to find the right gadgets for you.

In addition, we have improved two other key features of Google Desktop:

Desktop Search - Ever searched your computer and seen a row of results that looked almost identical - so you had to open file after file until you found the right one? Now there is a better way: preview search results from within Google Desktop. Don't wait for an entire application to load, just click "Preview" and find the information you want right away. Finding the right file has never been easier!

Security - We take your security extremely seriously and have added new features to help make your search experience safer. Whether you’re clicking on links from documents, IMs and email or browsing the web, if we have information that the site you're visiting might be trying to steal your personal information or install malicious software on your computer, we'll give you a warning first so you can decide if you want to use the site.

You can never save enough time looking for information. Find out more about Google Desktop.

Google Desktop is hitting a milestone today: we're going cross platform! Google Desktop for the Mac (beta) is now available. We know that whether you use a PC or a Mac, a significant amount of personal content lives on the web and also on your computer. We're committed to helping you search all of that information.

Like the Windows version, Google Desktop for the Mac makes searching your desktop and the web faster, easier, and more comprehensive, enhances the desktop search experience with the Quick Search Box, and leverages Google technology to deliver speed and usability. It works with both PowerPC and Intel machines with Mac OS X 10.4+ and is compatible with Safari, Firefox, and Camino browsers. For this version, we focused on searching the desktop with speed, ease of use, relevance, and comprehensiveness. It does not have sidebar and gadgets, though we do plan to make Google Gadgets available on the Mac in the future. To find out more, read this post on our Mac Blog.

We look forward to adding more features and further improving performance and usability in the near future.

"...But Mrs. Ripp, it is sloppy so they cannot get a 4..."
"... We can hardly read their explanation so we gave it a lower grade... "

All comments that made me think in today's math class as students were assessing work samples to get them ready to assess their own work. Their open response work involved multiple steps, illustrations and explaining their work. They were therefore provided what we as teachers are provided; student sample work to figure out what the work was worth based on a 4-0 rubric. After partner discussions, students shared their rankings of the problems and the most common discussion point was the sloppiness of the writing, not the math presented, not the explantion, not whether they followed directions; instead a laser-like focus on handwriting neatness and presentation.

I kept my mouth shut and handed them all a post-it note, asked them to copy a sentence off the board and write their name lightly on the back of the post-it. I didn't ask them to take special care with their note, just write it down. They handed them in and one-by-one I asked them to decide whether a note was sloppy or not as shown under the document camera. I didn't know the names of the note writers but sure enough all the notes that were deemed neat and not sloppy were those written by girls. Not a single boy post-it note was in the pile. My students sat quietly as I gave them some think time. Then I said; "If you were a boy and I assessed your work based on your handwriting presentation you would not be able to get a full score. You would never be able to acheive what a girl can achieve in this class." Silence and crazy stares.

When teachers base part of their grade on handwriting and neatness, particularly at the elementary level, we forget one important thing; handwriting is often determined more by our fine motor skill development and not the effort placed in the work. Neat handwriting does not mean a fuller understanding or a better writer, it does not mean more care was taken with the work, or that more effort was put in. Neat handwriting means just that; neat handwriting. So unless that is what we are specifically assessing it should not be part of our assessment, even if our inner voice screams at us to include it.

Try the same experiment with your students, see if you get similar results and then watch them discuss it. Watch them realize how their knowledge is judged based on their handwriting. Watch them gain a deeper understanding of all of the inner voices they carry telling them what makes work quality or not. It is quite a realization for teachers and students alike.

A new curriculum is announced for next school year... again. Every year since I have started something new has been introduced and so I find myself in the back of the group, murmuring about how once again something new is coming, more money being spent, more time needed to learn, to understand, to adapt. Once again I have to rewrite everything. Once again; change. I go home and discuss it with Brandon who stops me in my tracks with a simple question; why not get excited about it? And I think, yes, why not, indeed?

Why not replace my skepticism with curiosity? Why not embrace the new like I do within my own classroom; try it out and then judge it. Why am I, already, after only 4 years of changing turning into that teacher, you know, the one that is quick to judge. The one that jumps to conclusions, the one that wants things to stay the same because they are not broken and do not need to be fixed, thank you very much. I change things every year, I hardly ever use the same lessons, I change so it fits my kids, my mood and my goals. I change because if I became static I would be bored out of my mind and few things are worse than a bored teacher So why am I already so stuck in my teaching ways that I have to be the one adding negative thoughts to a new initiative? I don't know how that happened so soon.

So I renew my vow of positivity. I want to embrace the new, which does not mean going into it blind, but rather than I will stay open to it. I will explore it, adapt it and make it work for me. I will give things a change, suspend my judge. Stay curious and not assume it will be awful. I am much too young to be so stuck in my ways and that is a healthy lesson for me to learn. Let's hope I don't forget it.

On Saturday, my mother got the call we had all been dreading. Come home, it is time, she is ready. My 98 year old grandmother had taken a turn for the worse and now had told the world that she was ready. A plane ride later, and a vigil kept and mormor is slowly slipping away. We get reports through emails and phone calls; no news, it just gets worse, she is ready to go home.

My family is not one seeped in religion, in fact, hardly anyone believes in an afterlife. So when my grandmother speaks of home, she does not speak of the heavenly version, or the eternal one, but the one where my grandfather is. As some of you know he passed December 14th, 2011 after 62 years of marriage to my grandmother. In those 62 years they spent one night apart, one night, and they hated it so much they never did it again. So home to my grandmother is wherever he is, wherever they can be together. And we wish nothing more for her than that she gets her wish even if it means leaving all of us who have looked to her for comfort, wisdom, and eternal optimism. Home is no longer with us. It is and always has been wherever morfar is.

So although it may be selfish, or it may even be cruel to others, I look at my own relationship with Brandon and I realize that he is my home. That wherever he is is where I need to be. And I am comforted that someday I will be in that same position, I understand what it means to be done with life so that you can be with the one you are supposed to be with. I understand when my mormor wishes for peace, saying she has lived enough, that she is ready and that we will be ok.

So in the end I wish nothing more for anyone, that they too have someone to come home to after a long life, after a lot of life. I hope you have a home.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Thea is only 3 and is nowhere near the homework assigning level, thank goodness. And yet, already it is an issue I come back to frequently in my mind, particularly as I get my fabulous 5th graders ready for middle school. Speaking to some middle school teachers and hearing to expect at least 1 1/2 hours of homework every night and that no regard is taking for homework assigned by other teachers. Yikes. From a teacher perspective I have made my stance clear on how I feel about homework and how over-assigned it is, but what about for parents? What can you truly do as a parent when sending your child to school to help them handle the insanity of homework as well as to maybe, just maybe, start a dialogue with their teachers? Here a few things to start you out.

Get clarification on general statements. If a teacher throws out an arbitrary number for homework minutes, like I used to do on orientation day, ask them what it looks like. When they say 50 minutes of homework, which child are they referring to? Are they referring to a well-adjusted, high-level learner, or to a more sluggish paced child? Which child will spend 50 minutes, is that the maximum any child will spend? At the very least it may make the teacher think about the 10 minutes X grade level rule so many of us have used as our standard.

Ask whether there will be punishment involved. What happens to the child that does not do their homework? Different teachers have different policies. Some take away recess, something I shy away from because I don't think I have the right to, others give them a chance to make up for it. Some, like me, simply ask them to bring it the following day or try to not assign much. This is going to directly affect your child and their view of homework, so do ask what will happen if they don't hand something in.

Figure out your parental level of involvement. Are you supposed to help or is this homework only for the child? How are you allowed to help? Would the teacher rather know if the child cannot complete a task by themselves (one would hope so!). These are all important questions to ask as well and leads directly to the next point.

Ask what the purpose of homework is. Is it used for grading? Is it used for assessment? Why does their homework look like it does and what is the end result of that homework? This discussion goes way beyond just a general statement but it is vital. Too often we assume that whatever a teacher assigns must have value otherwise it wouldn't be assigned. Having been that teacher I can tell you that is not the case! So find out what the purpose is.

Search your soul. Many of us think homework should be something certain because of what we experienced but even for this youngish teacher, school has changed drastically since I graduated. Make sure that your homework expectations are not based on what you feel helped you as a learner, figure out instead what will help your child, after all you do know them better than the teacher but they are not you, no matter how much we see the resemblance.

Ask questions. I am never bothered when parents ask me questions, in fact, I cherish their feedback and often wisdom about their child. I differentiate assignments, I give class time and I try to not involve parents much simply because it is not them that need to learn a concept. Yet I still fail sometimes, I still earn from my mistakes and I don't always have the answer to something, so start a dialogue and start it early, it can be something as simple as a line or two in an email and does not need to be often. It will benefit all parties involved all year.

And finally, stand your ground. As a parent I will expect Thea to apply herself in school and to give school her best in the hours she is there. Once she is home, homework should not take up the majority of her afternoon and evening. As she gets older, sure, there will be projects, papers, reading etc. But she should not be having to give up most of her free time for worksheets or other repetitive tasks, and I will discuss this with her future teachers. You can do this nicely and it may lead to a very interesting conversation. It is ok for parents to question a teacher's homework philosophy.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The phone call came this afternoon. As I stepped out of a meeting the message light beckoned and on there was my mother's voice giving me the inevitable news; mormor had passed. As we mourn as a family we cry not for her but for ourselves, for we are the children left behind. She gets what she wanted; peace and to be be with her husband. We also get what we wanted; her to be in peace, with no pain, together with the man whom she loved more than anything. And yet, the sorrow has just begun to settle in.

I now go through the world without any grandparents but that doesn't mean I don't have a past. I will show my children the videos of these two people who showed me what dedication and love means. What perseverance and staying together looks like in our much too frantic society. We have proof that love matters most; it is our veins, it is in our heritage. It is up to us to pass it on.

Tomorrow would be the day, 66 years ago, that my grandparents met each other and fell in love. I cannot think of anything more beautiful than that my grandmother got to go be with my grandfather once again. That perhaps tomorrow she gets to meet him again, wherever they are, and now they don't ever have to leave the other one behind. So I smile through my tears and vow to never forget and to carry them with us wherever we go. Mormor heard about the twins, how they are a boy and a girl, and I cannot help but wonder if Ida and Oskar wont get just a little bit of my grandparents soul in them. I hope so.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Yesterday, in a quiet moment of inspiration, as my students were presenting their super hero projects and getting a little droopy eyed, I stopped them and asked for feedback. And not just great postive statements, but things I should change, things I should keep, things thats hould be removed altogether. We started with the positives; they loved how I didn't make them write a comic book but rather focused it on character and setting. They loved the creative aspect, the shared writing, and all of the exmples. And then I asked what they would change. After one brave student raised their hand and gave me a suggestion of more partner share, then many joined in and added their suggestions. These suggestions were better than my original ideas! I sat there 10 minutes of listening and writing, dumbfounded that I hadn't done this for every single project.

When we decide to ask students how they really feel we run the risk of being told that we suck, to use a favorite 5th grade word. We run the risk of being told we are boring, that the project was uninspired, and that they would never do it to another student. (You know a project is bad when it is "done" to you). But we also run the risk of getting better ideas, constructive criticism, and valid points that propel our projects further into student-directed learning, further into deeper knowledge acquisition. My students took ownership of the project as well as their criticism. They didn't feel the need to apologize for what they were about to say but phrased it specifically and unemotionally. They knew that I knew it wasn't an attack on me.

So do we dare to ask the students for feedback on all their learning? Do we dare take 10 minutes of our day to ask for suggestions, even if just one in a while? Do we dare to actually do something with those suggestions because any fool can listen but it takes courage and dedication to do. My students showed me yesterday that they trust me enough to share their opinions, they know I will take their words to heart and I will actually change what I did. They know this because I have proved to them what my intentions are. What a huge success in a 5th grade classroom. So ask yourself; have I involved my students? Have I asked for their feedback and opinion? Those that the learning affect the most? Or am I too scared to do it?